2 weeks ago
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Jeff KassoufJul 19, 2025, 05:01 PM ET
- Jeff Kassouf covers women's shot for ESPN, focusing connected the USWNT and NWSL. In 2009, helium founded The Equalizer, a women's shot quality outlet, and helium antecedently won a Sports Emmy astatine NBC Sports and Olympics.
United States guardant Trinity Rodman returned to grooming with the Washington Spirit connected Saturday for the archetypal clip successful 3 months.
Rodman, who scored 3 goals astatine past year's Olympics to assistance the USWNT triumph a golden medal, past played a competitory lucifer connected April 12 for the Spirit. She has been hampered by a backmost wounded that she has reaggravated respective times since the Olympics, limiting her to conscionable 1 lucifer for the USWNT successful the past 11 months.
Rodman had been retired indefinitely since mid-April and had not participated successful squad activities with the Spirit successful months. She has trained individually successful caller weeks.
According to ProSoccerWire, Rodman participated successful astir fractional Saturday's grooming league and stepped speech for idiosyncratic enactment erstwhile the Spirit shifted to an 11-v-11 game. The grooming league was unfastened to the public.
USWNT caput manager Emma Hayes told ESPN successful aboriginal June that Rodman would instrumentality to grooming with the Spirit astatine immoderate constituent successful July.
"She's successful large spirits, and I cognize we're moving successful the close absorption with Trin," Hayes said past month. "Both nine and state person been moving hard to get her to this stage."
The NWSL is successful the mediate of a month-long interruption from the regular play owed to planetary competitions. The Spirit person affable matches scheduled for aboriginal this period earlier returning to regular play play connected Aug. 3.
Rodman near an NWSL crippled successful a wheelchair past September aft injuring her backmost successful a crippled successful Kansas City. She managed the wounded done the extremity of the NWSL season, helping the Spirit decorativeness 2nd successful the regular play and runners-up successful the NWSL Championship.
She continued to conflict with the wounded this year. Rodman was near disconnected USWNT rosters for astir of the past twelvemonth to let her to rest. She was called up for a brace of matches against Brazil successful aboriginal April and scored 10 minutes into her instrumentality to the USWNT. It was her lone planetary quality since the Olympics to date.
A week later, she near the Spirit's NWSL game astatine halftime. Shortly aft that, she went to London to person her backmost evaluated by doctors.
Rodman antecedently said that she doesn't deliberation her backmost volition ever beryllium 100% again.
"It's benignant of an contented of it's not 1 circumstantial thing, it's conscionable the mode that my back's structured," she said. "And it's much truthful absorption than similar a curable fix.
"I don't deliberation my backmost volition ever beryllium the mode it was my rookie year, which is unfortunate," she added.
Rodman, 23, is 1 of the NWSL's and USWNT's biggest stars. She is an impending escaped cause and became eligible to commencement negotiating with different teams connected July 1. She told ESPN earlier this twelvemonth that it is "just a substance of when" she decides to play successful Europe.
Spirit proprietor Michele Kang has said respective times that the squad volition "do everything we can" to re-sign Rodman.
